These two pro dancers are getting it done!! Definitely planning for the future – ya can’t dance forever, after all. First, an interview with Maks. Maks is gonna do some judging in…St. Petersburg:

Contestants at this week’s Millennium Dancesport Championships in St. Petersburg will face his bruising truth, as Chmerkovskiy pops into town today, Friday and Saturday to serve as a judge, bringing along fiancée and fellow Dancing pro Karina Smirnoff.

Fitting the appearance into a schedule that includes the upcoming ABC unscripted competition The Superstars and running dance studios of his own in New York and New Jersey, Chmerkovskiy offered a few comments on his frank style.

Here’s another interview with Maks that is slightly longer. Some of the answers are the same, some are expanded.

In a sea of lithe, sleek guys, he’s the stubble-faced, macho Ukrainian often showing off his chest. On a show manipulated to the nth degree by producers, he’s the dancer straining to say what’s on his mind, no matter what.

“I’m unable to bend the truth,” he said, speaking by cellphone from New York last week, moments before he would accept an award from Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his contributions to Russian culture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “It’s more important to stay true to myself. It’s a little difficult – If I may say something about somebody not doing such a good job and that person happens to be popular celebrity, that gets their fans hating me. So how do you deal with that?”

Maks is on the new, unscripted, reality show, Superstars and he’s doing really well! The first episode aired last night, although it was shot a while ago in the Bahamas.

The show features teams made up of eight professional athletes and eight celebrities who are paired together to compete for the title of The Superstars Champion. The team pairings are Terrell Owens & Joanna Krupa; Jeff Kent & Ali Landry; Robert Horry & Estella Warren; Bode Miller & Paige Hemmis; Kristi Leskinen & Maksim Chmerkovskiy; Lisa Leslie & Dan Cortese; Jennifer Capriati & David Charvet; and Brandi Chastain & Julio Iglesias, Jr.

The new challenges include a lagoon swim, with teams lining up on the beach and one team member swimming across the lagoon. Once the finish line is crossed, the second team member will follow. The next challenge will feature a basketball game, with each team given 60 seconds to shoot and score as many points as they can with baskets that have assigned points of 5, 4, 3, 2, and1.

Finally, Maks and Karina get a reality show. I don’t know how true this one is – it seemingly contradicts what Maks said in preceeding articles. Who knows? I guess we’ll find out.

Karina Smirnoff Ice and fiancee Maksim Chmerkovskiy say “so long” to partnering with Dancing With The Stars. Now, they’ve landed themselves a solo gig – their own reality TV show. Though not set in stone, the engaged dancing duo are looking forward to possibly having a fall premiere of their show, which would follow their bi-coastal, dancing fever and wedding-planning lives!

I promise I will try to do more “Where in the world..” posts and find other news on other pros. It just so happens that Mak, Karina and Derek have the most stuff going on (that I can easily find) right now. There are blogs about Derek talking about his band and Shannon talking about their (hers and Derek’s) vacation, in addition to Derek’s appearance in Kate Voegele’s new video on Pure Derek Hough. Additionally, Julianne is in the studio – and Lexi will be on the next record. 😉

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I'm a nerd and proud of it. Two degrees in geology also means I love BEER. :-) I'm also a Derek lover - proud of that too. So don't scream at those of us on this site and call us a bunch of "biased Derek-lovers" - it's just ME. :-) It may sound like I hate DWTS at times, but really, I'm just a snarky nitpicker from way back. And I'm cynical and jaded too. But I do love DWTS. :-)